Valentines 2012, Part 1

I tried to get a head start on Valentines this year. I'm a real procrastinator. So around the first of January, I thought I'd get started. I found lots of ideas on Pinterest!

First was an idea was where I would take a picture of Emily holding her arm in the air making a fist. After I got the pictures printed, I was going to put a lollypop through the picture and it's supposed to look like she's holding the lollypop. OK. First go around.

Not bad. But I had my local Walgreens print them up. When I got them, the wording was cut off and half her head was cut off. They told me it was the was I cropped the photo when editing it.

Take two.

Not bad, eh. Wait a sec! Look at the date! Gosh! I didn't even notice that until I got them home, (after looking at them in the store and saying "They look great!") and so I bought some heart stickers and placed them over the 2011. Sheesh! It only cost me $2 to have them printed, by the way. They were having a 60% off sale on prints. That's my kind of Valentine bargain!

Then, I found the idea where you can take your kids old crayons, peel the paper off, cut them up, put them in heart molds, bake and bam! You got new heart crayons. So I tried it.

It worked!

Emily's teacher asked me to make something sweet for their class Valentines party! I told her YES, and that I was all over it! Here is what I made.

Sugar Cookie Cutouts

Dipped the cookies and some pretzels in pink candy melts.

I also made my Monster Cookies.

I made my monster cookies, only with a Valentines twist. M&M's make a cherry flavored M&M. I put those in these cookies. They didn't impress me. The M&M's tasted like cherry flavored cough syrup! But, they were ok in the cookies.

Ethan didn't want me to go to his V-day party at school. He was even embarrassed to bring his Valentines day cards to school. He said he didn't want to be seen carrying the cards. I tried to explain to him that everyone will be bringing in Valentine cards.  But, Emily was glad to have me at her party.

Emily and some friends!

Emily's Mr. Valentine.

After the party, I took Emily to get her hair cut, I stopped by a good church friend's house with the left over cookies and dropped them off, and then went home and made dinner. That's right. I went home and made dinner. No candles, roses or chocolates over a romantic dinner. Just the normal chaos that is our home!

I tried to make it Valentine-y, though. I waited until dinner to give the kids their little Valentines gifts.

I made pizza pasta with heart shaped pepperoni on top!

A quick family photo before bed time... minus me of course.

I think this Valentines has pooped us out...

And I'm ready to settle down with this baby... compliments of my baking/work buddy Arielle. Red Velvet cake baked in a mason jar with butter-cream icing. It was so good!

It was a perfect way to end my night!